November launch for Penryn - full details

 

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By David Bayon in San Francisco

Posted on 19 Sep 2007 at 01:50

Intel's 45nm Penryn processor family will launch on 12 November, the company announced today at its Developer Forum, and will include the first 45nm Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor.

The Core 2 Extreme QX9650 is a 45nm quad-core processor with a hefty 12MB L2 Cache and 1,333MHz front side bus. Supported by the X38 and P35 chipsets, it will initially ship with a 3GHz core frequency, although Intel's Steve Smith told delegates he "expects to get more out of that in the not too distant future."

Although the chip was not demonstrated, Smith did provide benchmark comparison figures in a variety of applications that made for interesting reading. According to Intel the QX9650 performs 7-10% faster than the existing 3GHz QX6850 in an identical test rig, a boost provided purely by the extra 4MB of cache and the improved microarchitecture.

Penryn builds upon the existing Core microarchitecture, allowing for L2 Cache up to 12MB without pushing the thermal design power (TDP) upwards. It adds support for SSE4 instructions for allegedly improved video encoding and editing peformance, and also includes Intel's Deep Power-Down technology. In a Deep Power-Down state the cache is completely powered off and the core voltage is massively reduced for much lower overall power consumption.

The November launch date encompasses initial shipments for both desktop and mobile parts, with more extensive OEM shipments expected in early 2008. The one exception to this is in the Extreme desktop sector, where OEM shipments should occur before the year is out.

At the other end of the price scale, Smith also used the briefing to assure delegates that Intel won't be phasing out the low-end Pentium Dual-Core and Celeron lines, which still produce high levels of interest "with people who are purely price-point conscious."